Method of making felt hats.



A. B. WARING. METHOD 0F MAKING FELT HATS. APPLICATION FILED 11017.19, 1912.

L 1 1 5,3541v Patented oct. 1914.

555555313@ .1 555551; il f5 UMTED s ARTHUB B. WARING, OF YORK, N'. Y.

`IlliIE'lHOlD 0F MAKING FELT HATS.

` I Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented (Det. 27, Milla..

Application filed November 19, 1912. Serial lilo. 732,202.'

To-,ZZZZ 'whom 'it may concern Be it known that l, ARTHUR B. WARrNG, a citizen of the United States of Amerlca,

' and a .resident of New York,county and State of NewYork, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Making Felt Hats, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, forming a part thereof. Y

My invention relates to a novel process of treating and making hats and to the hats treated or made according to this` improved process. l 4 t The invention relates more specifically to felt hats, and its object is toprovide a simple method for making hats of this particular type, of novel and pleasing appearance.

I will now describe my invention in the following specification and then point out the novel features thereofv in appended claims.A v-

Referring to the drawings: Figure 1 is a perspective view of a hat madeaccording to the present invention.` Fig. 2 is a side elevation of a block upon whichv such a hat as that shown in Fig. 1 may be treated. Fig. 3 is an elevation of a pattern plate or form. which may be used in carrying out ina slightly different manner the herein described process.' lnthis 'gure a part of the pattern plate is broken away to more clearly show its construction.

Like characters of reference designate corresponding parts in all the figures.

A felt hat of usual form is shown in Fig. 1 at 10. Upon both the crown and the rim of this hat appears a design i or pattern which may be produced in the novel manner which I have invented. This design eifect'is produced byabrading or rubbing with sand paper or other suitable material certain ortions of the surface of the hat body to e ect a contrast in appearance between the abraded and other portions of the body. fn Fig. l the abraded portions are designated by 1l and the other portions by 12. y

A satisfactory manner of vaccomplishing the desired results is as follows :-a hat body is formed of animal ber,-fur or wool-with some other kind or kinds of ber mixed with it, for example,l about fifteen per cent. of a vegetable ber, such as ramie may be used, although obviously l do not lim'itA myself to anyl specific proportions or.

then 'shrunk in theV usual manner.

together, but as the ramie hasno felting properties it works into the body, of the material'and becomes covered by the fur or wool. `The hat is then immersedsin a dye for animal bers which does not have a like effect upon the vegetable bers. A satisfactory jet-black dye for the fur has prac? tically no effect upon the ramie which yre-v .tains its original whiteness. lf desired,"the

ramie may be colored before itis mixed with the fur, but. as dyeing injures the felting property of either fur or wool, itis better to do lthe dyeing of the animal ber after the shrinking process. If preferred the ramie may be dyed and the animalber left in its natural color, or animal and vegetable fibers of different colors used and both leftin their natural colors. A hat made as thus described to this particular material. The body is l i This`y `causes the animal bers to become felted has substantially the samevappearance as one l made of animal ber alone and' it may be pounced or abraded a suticient amount to vreduce it to a smooth surface without ma terially affectingits appearance. l have however, discovered that when certain por- .have been given to the ramie.

lt is the object of the present invention to utilize this discovery in produclng in felt hats, designs of any desired pattern. A Y

simple manner of accomplishing this result is to provide a block 13 such as that shown in, Fig. 2 with alternately raised and deloo pressed portionsover its surface. The par ticular block shown in the drawingsl is made to produce upon a hat the design illustrated in Fig.A l. To this end it is constructed with raised horizontal ribs 14 and transverse ribs l5 with intermediate depressed portions 16 between the ribs. Thehat may be placed over such a block and pressed or forced onto away from the general contour of the body, thus embossing the design of the block in the body of the hat. While on such a block the pouncing or abrading may be done, preferably with a coarser sand paper than that used for the surfacing abrasion. The raised portions of the fabric will then be acted upon sufciently to remove the felted covering of the vegetable bers and to have a combing eect upon the bers without the depressed portions being materially affected. This Will result inthe production of the desired design or pattern. After this the embossing is pressed out. It is to be understood that the rim of the'hat may be similarly treated.

Of course instead of raised ribs on thel block these portions may be depressions or grooves and the intermediate portions raised. -Such a block would reverse the pattern produced on the hat.

The pattern plate or form shown in Fig. 3 is a shell 17 of sheet metal through which slits or openings 18 are cut of such shape and size and relative positions as to form a desired pattern. The hat body is to be placed inside of this shell and forced into it by means of a rigid block or by an expansible bulb or bag. This Will bring the outer surface of the hat up against the inner surface of the shell or may even cause 4some of the fabric to protrude throughthe slits or openings in the shell. Such portions of the hat as are opposite the slits may be abraded as before described.`

It is well Within my invention to treat fabrics with local abrasion other than those composed of unlike bers for the production thereon of designs. i It is for example, feasible to treat a surface-dyed fabric in which a design has been embossed as herein described, to obtain pleasing effects. Of course the process. is not necessarily limited to the treatment or manufacture of hats. It is also possible to apply local abrasion to the surface of a fabric Without previously embossing the fabric or Without protecting the portions which are not to be abraded by a shell. That is, a desired design may be produced upon the fabric by localizing the abrasion by hand. I have described several Ways in which my process may be used to show that I do not limit myself to any specic mechanism or manner of using it. By the use of this invention felt hats may be made which closely simulate hats made of Woven fabric with designs in colors woven in them. The product of this process is, I believe, new with me and I wish to cover it as Well as the process.

What I claim is:

1. The process of producing a designed fabric consisting in making the fabric With the inner portion thereof `containing a material unlike that on its surface,

more uppnthe animal ber than upon the vegetable ber, and locally abrading the surface of the fabric to disclose the vegetable ber in the form of a design.

4. The process of making felt Which comprises mixing a large percentage of animal ber and a small percentage of vegetable ber of a predetermined appearance, shrinking the mixture to cause the animal ber to cover the vegetable ber, dyeing the animal ber, and in locally abrading the surface of the felt thus formed to disclose the vegetable ber in the form of a design.

5. The process of producing hats comprising making a hat body of intermingled fibers of unlike materials, felting said body thereby covering the bers of one of the materials, and in locally abrading portions of the surface of the body to uncover inthe abraded portions the covered bers. e y

6. The process of producing felt hats with designs in their fabrics that consists in felting a mixture containing a predetermined percentage of a non-felting material, ,em-

bossing a design thereon, and abrading the raised material.

7 The process of producing hats comprising making a hat body of intermingled bers of unlike materials dierently affected by dye, felting said body thereby covering the bers of one of the materials, dyeing the body, and locally abrading portions of the surface `of the body to uncover in the abraded portions the covered bers.

8. The process of producing hats comprising making a hat body of'intermingledibers of animal ber and vegetable ber, shrinking said body thereby causing` the animal ber to felt and to cover the vegetable ber,

portions to disclose the non-felting v dyeing the body with a material which afembossing a 1 surface to disclose the non-felting material.

10. The process of producing hats comprising making `a. hat body of intermingled fibers of animal fiber and vegetable ber, shrinking said body thereby causing the animal ber to felt and to cover the vegetable ber, dyeing the body with a material which affects the animal fiber differently than it does the Vegetable ber, embossing a design in the body and then subjecting said body to abrasion.

11. The process of producing a designed fabric consisting in making the fabriffwith the inner portion thereof containing a mate- 'bossing rial unlike that on its surface, embossing a design of the surface and abrading the embossed portions to disclose the inner unlike material, and then pressing out the emln Witness whereof l have hereunto set my hand this 16th day of November, in the pres- 20 ence of two subscribing witnesses.

i #TH B. W

UNG.

Witnesses:

ERNEST W. M A 13mm., JULIUs TAQKMAN. 

